AW : Music Insitional Context

Why is a Music Video significant?

Music Videos are significant as they promote the singles that artists release, letting them enter the charts and gain popularity, with a popular music video an artist can expand their audience and sell more music.

Production Process of a music video

A director will be contacted by the studio and given a song and a budget to make a video for, they will then create a treatment and get back to the studio to be given the green light. They then have to create a schedule of times the artist is free to be filmed and when they are going to film all the other parts of the video. There is then a lengthy editing process and then the video is fed back to the studio before a deadline.

How do NMTs promote artists? To what extent is this an example of 'we media'?

New media technologies such as the internet and more specifically YouTube and Vevo have given artists a way to get their music video to a wider catchment audience than simply the music channels on television. Also they make money off of the views they receive directly rather than a TV channel making money, so the artists not only gains a wider audience, but also profits from NMTs

The Music Press promoting artists

The music press such as NME magazine and Radio 1 do play an important part in spreading music to the UK. Radio 1 uses is 'single of the week' to promote a particular song which usually ends up at number 1 in the charts, for example 'Get Lucky' by Daft Punk. However due to the wide variety of music available and the lack of interactivity in the music press, they have been criticized for not being diverse enough. Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian criticised was quoted in 2012 as saying:

 "NME bands" fall within very narrow parameters. In the 80s, the paper prided itself on its  coverage of hip hop, R&B and the emerging dance scene which it took seriously and featured prominently – alongside the usual Peel-endorsed indie fare. Now, though, its range of approved bands has dramatically shrunk to a strand embodied by the [Arctic] Monkeys, Babyshambles and Muse – bands who you don't need specialist knowledge to write about and who are just "indie" enough to make readers feel they're part of a club. Like everything else in publishing, this particular direction must be in response to reader demand, but it doesn't half make for a self-limiting magazine.